A sip of ‘liquid smoking’ to shut out cigarettes

For smokers saying ‘a puff of cigarette’ may not be in vogue anymore. Rather a sip of ‘cigarette drink’ may be the new lingo as a drink promises the same smoking experience, sans nicotine.
Called ‘liquid smoking’ the drink has South African herbal extracts, say its Dutch manufacturers United Drinks and Beauty Corporation.

The drink has already been on sale for one year now in Netherlands and United Drinks hopes the product would be available in the UK before Christmas, The Telegraph reported recently.

“The manufacturers say it does not contain the drug nicotine but rather a mix of roots from South African plants which is said to give ‘a slight energising effect, followed by a euphoric sense of calming and relaxation,” the newspaper said.

‘Liquid smoking’ would cost about £1.50 in the shops and would have less than 21 calories in every 275 ml can.

Meanwhile, the Guardian in a recent report about the drink said, “coming in a can reminiscent of a cigarette packet, it has a box proclaiming ‘no warning needed’ where a health warning would be on a packet of cigarettes”.

Quoting United Drinks chief executive Martin Hartman, The Telegraph said, “the product we (United Drinks) have developed has got similar properties to nicotine, so we are trying to help

people out who are affected by the ban on nicotine.

People might use this instead of a cigarette or tobacco to help the cravings.”

Martin Hartman was further quoted as saying “it will take the edge off of a need for nicotine for

between one to four hours... I think it will help people who feel the need for nicotine in bars, restaurants, long-haul flights and on the train.

Low sex drive? No big deal, say most women

The majority of women who experience low libido, poor arousal or face difficulties in orgasming, don’t seem upset by these problems.

These findings are based on one of the largest ever studies of its kind, which probed 32,000 women aged between 18 and 100 plus years across the US, regarding distress bearing on sex life, including anger, guilt, frustration and worry.

“Sexual problems are common in women, but problems associated with personal distress, those which are truly bothersome and affect a woman’s quality of life, are much less frequent.” said Jan Shifren of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), who led the study. Though women over 65 years faced most of sexual problems, they reported the lowest levels of distress. The most distressed were women aged 45 to 64, according to an MGH press release.

The youngest group, aged between 18 and 44 years, had lower levels of both problems and distress. Depressed women were more than twice as likely to report distress over any kind of sexual problem rather than non depressed women.

About 43% of respondents experienced some degree of sexual problem, with 39%reporting low
desire, 26% problems with arousal and 21% difficulties with orgasm. But distress bearing on any of these problems was restricted only to 12% of the volunteers.

“Although sexual problems were very common in women over age 65, these problems often weren’t associated with distress,” Shifren, associate professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Harvard Medical School, added. “Several factors could be behind the lower levels of distress in the oldest group. If their partners also have low desire, it may not be looked on as a problem, or additional health issues could be of greater concern.”

INTIMACY WOES
Four in ten women experience sexual dysfunction 43% of the women reported having some sort of sexual dysfunction, although only 12% said that these problems affected their day-to-day lives